DxD: Tetsuya the Chimera

Pilot Chapter

There was an animal whisper roaring in the back of my mind.

I was cold. I could hear the sounds of the wind rustling the leaves on the trees above my head, but I wasn't supposed to be here. Last I could remember I was sleeping soundly in my own bed. Something hard dug into my back. My body was pushed up against a solid wall that had been plastered over.

When I opened my eyes I was faced with a strange reality. It was the dead of night. A full moon hung over my head and bathed the entire area in an ethereal glow, but the physical space was not so poetic in nature. A dirty, dingy, run-down exhibit space in what I assumed was a zoo. I was up against the back side of the enclosure looking across a drained pool to a set of rusted iron bars.

"It looks like my prey is finally awake!"

My head snapped upwards to the top of the fence. Silhouetted against the moon was a figure in a long coat, with a pair of curved wings sprouting from their back. As my eyes focused on them the details became clear. Flowing white hair, a malicious grin, and a pair of green eyes that spoke of nothing but contempt.

"But I really ought to make sure that you are fully alert before we begin..."

He reached out with one hand, summoning a swirling sigil of patterns and symbols. Before I could will my legs to move a bolt of red energy shot from the centre of the magical seal and wrapped around my body.

I screamed in pain as every nerve in my body was violated and inflamed at once. Black spots appeared in my eyes and I writhed on the ground, covering my clothes in dirt in the process. It must have lasted for only a few seconds – but for me it felt like an hour. My muscles seized up and I slumped down onto the floor face first.

I took a shuddering breath. There was that whisper again.

My assailant glided down from his hiding place and landed next to me on the island at the rear of the enclosure. I was still stunned by the agony of his attack, so the fact that I was being assaulted by someone with wings and the ability to use magic didn't even register in my mind. The only thing I could conceptualize was fear.

"What a pitiful sight you make, human. When he organized this for me, I expected him to choose someone with more fight!"

"He?" I croaked.

He grabbed me by my dark hair and forcefully pulled me up to my feet. I was a tall guy, but he still dwarfed me by almost a foot. He yanked on my neck and made sure I couldn't attack him while he gloated.

"That's not for you to know, human. I'm going to give you a minute head start – and I hope that you won't disappoint me by making it easy."

"Or what?"

"I'll butcher you like the animal you are," he growled.

He released me before pushing me towards the exit. There was no time to think. I ran as quickly as my gangly legs could carry me and burst out onto the visitor's footpath that encircled the exhibit. I wasn't going to get away from someone who could fly – so I decided to find a good hiding place and hope that he wouldn't find me. Easier said than done when being thrown into the deep end, in a zoo I was not familiar with during the pitch darkness of night.

A minute. I only had a minute. I couldn't get too far from him in that time. The game was rigged. There was no way for me to escape, but I wanted to hope that a miracle would occur. That was exactly what my hunter wanted to see. He dangled that small spark of hope in front of me on a line so that he could yank it away at the last second.

I found a gamekeeper's hut near another exhibit with an unlocked door and dived inside, pulling it shut behind me and burying my body beneath a dirty trap that was left draped over a set of chairs. I tried in vain to slow my breathing and silence whatever noise I was making.